The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-12-15
TIE BRINK OF DESPAIR.

81 can't help people admiring me,
can /, YOU unreasonable fellowP"
Geraldine Cleve gave her head
pretty little defiant motion as she
spoke.
And Jonas Cleve could not but own
to himself that it would have been
rather difficult task to control the
current of popular admiration, as he
stood looking at his beautiful young
wife.
She was twenty-one, bat she looked
scarcely sixteen upon the stage, in her
floating tulle dress, with slender bands
of gold round her tiny ankles, and
rose garlands dangling from her hair.
For Mrs. Cleye was neither more nor
less than dancer at the Shakespeare
Theatre.
The elegant leader of society may
elevate her aristocratic nose at the
slender shawled figure entering the
stage door, as her glittering carriage
rolls by, but we question if the truer
and more tender heart be not oftener
found beneath the shabby stage finer
les than under the velvet and ermine.
Geraldine bad earned her own and
her parents living by the light eyolu-
tions of her fairy foot, ever since she
was ten years old; as good, and true,
and noble hearted young creature
as ever bounded before the footlights.
And now that she was married to
the young lawyers clerk down town,
she still remained on the stage, con-
trary to his most earnest entreaties
and consultations.
sInSt tEn 1nnopaf InnaG
dear" she said, ''until we save money
where in the suburbs and furnish it as
we want"
And Jonas Cleve yielded to her
pretty coaxing solicitations, although
it was against his own better judg-
ment.
But it was not pleasing to 90 night
after night, only to see other men star
ing Mt his wife, and listen, unwillin@ly
enough, to their comments, and Jonas
Cleve had been gradually growing dis
satisfied with this arrangement.
Il cannot stand it any longer,
Gerryw was his exclamation, one
evening, as he walked home with her
from the theatre, her bright spangled
robes all covered beneath a sober
black alpaca skirt and a water proof
cloak. "What made you take the bou-
quet that that puppy Middleworth
tossed on the stage?"
why shouldn't I?" demanded Ger
aldine demurely. Il am sure the
flowers were very pretty"
He has thrown You a bouquet
every evening for week"
Il
dine. 81 like flowers, and l can't af-
ford to buy them myself"
But, Geraldine-"
And then it was that the little dan
SettSe stopped in the light of a gas
lamp which they happened to be pass
ing, and made the saucy little speech
which is chronicled 1T the beginning
of our sketch:
Il can't help people admiring me,
can /, you unreasonable fellow"
But the husbands face, in the yellow
lamp light, looked unnaturally stern
and fixed.
Geraldine" he said gravely, my
wife must not receive the miscella-
neous homage of every brainless fop
like young Middlewortht"
That is nonsense, Jonasi"
"Is it" His brows contracted until
they seemed to form black line across
his forehead. Il choose to think 9TH
erwise. You must accept no more
flowers from that young man. l like
to see the bouquets rain down around
you, as tribute to your skill and mer-
its, but when it comes to regular of
fering, night after night, from some
ono rpTSoD and hn n profirota Soap,p
whose admiration is an honor to no
woman-"
'Jonasr
81 am only speaking the truth, Ger
aldine."
And what will you do to me If /
am bold enough to dare the awful
peril of your anger?" laughed Geral-
dine. ''Shall you shut me up in a
walled tower, like the princesses of
old, or land me on desert island, in
habited only by seagulls and scream
ing eagles?"
''Do not speak so, Geraldine; this is
no jesting matter"
She pouted at his stern tone, and,
almost for the first time in their mar
rled Dfe, slight, but very percepti-
bic cloud darkened over the domestic
horizon. Jonas Cleve thought that
Geraldine was flippant, and Geraldine
thought her husband unreasonable and
cross.
How lovely the young danseuse
looked the next night, when she glided
upon the stage in dress of green and
silver, with silver wings seeming to